The Ghost Boy's Apprentice
by My Vantilene
Summary: A spin-off series focused on a fourteen-year-old Dani's threatened stay in Amity and her days training under a sixteen-year-old Danny.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom. I don't own the Packers. Why not? Because the City of Green Bay won't sell them to me!

**_#$%! READ THIS!_**

_Yeah, so, what this is going to be is just an extension of the series. And we're going to pretend Phantom Planet never happened, kay? Kay. It's basically just a spin-off series of Dani. She's fourteen, Danny's sixteen, and Jazz is eighteen, finishing out her last year of high school. Danny's parents don't know about him, the world doesn't know about Vlad, and there are no Danny Phantom statues running amuck in this story. So that no one catches onto the fact that she's a clone of Danny, her name will be Danille, pronounced (Duh-neel), but in ghost form, she'll be Dani. I'm going to switch up the POV from chapter to chapter, so review and tell me if you like third person or first person better. I actually might try second person just for kicks. Let me know how that turns out. _

I hear the cacophony of an experiment gone wrong before the mishap turns redolent. A telltale sign of ectoplasmic mist snakes around the bend in the steps and plumes of it shroud the rest of the onyx staircase, blocking my bird's eye view of the lab with an opaque gust of emerald.

"Jack! Maddie!" I shout, racing down the stars as fast as I can, wondering if they had struck out with their inventions one too many times, and that this was the one time that they finally —

"Over here, Danille! We're fine." Maddie's cool, composed voice is all I need to bring me to my senses. The veil of smoke thins until no remnants of the experiment are left, besides the vile in Jack's hand.

"This lab sure is a mess, though." Jack muttera to himself as he sets it down gently in a test tube stand, "Danille, would you be a doll and go get Danny to clean this up?"

"Sure." I smile vibrantly, as I race up the stairs again.

I can never, and will never get used to the thrill of them. Of real parents. Of a real sister. Of a real brother. (Even if we _are _supposed to be cousins.) Of a real family. One that I'm actually part of! It's just…it's a nice change from traversing the hallows of the Ghost Zone. In fact, it's a nice change from my whole past, in general. This perfect family, this loving home, this feeling of belonging I'll never let become casual, it's all just so great.

But while it is a nice change, it can't take away who I am, where I came from, and what I've done. Vlad is still my father, but I think Jack and Danny have a higher place in my heart for that role. Speaking of Vlad, I'm still not sure if he knows of this little arrangement I have here or not. It was only a few weeks ago that me and Danny overshadowed Jack and Maddie into letting their fourteen-year-old niece stay with them after her parents died in a horrible car accident. Either Vlad knew and was waiting for me to get stronger so that he can melt me down to make another clone, or he was none the wiser. I'm hoping for the latter.

I open the door to Danny's room and see he has company. Sam, his Goth girlfriend, who religiously acts in ultra recyclo-vegetarianism, and Tucker, his best friend, who can more than make his way around a computer, are sitting next to Danny on his bed, talking and laughing. As I stand there waiting for the sound of their laughter to die down, I can't help but notice that Tucker's gawking at me again. You'd think a man of his intelligence would take his eyes off someone like me, but he just keeps staring. I guess it's because I refuse to change the clothes of my default human half. I'm still wearing the blue sweatshirt that, after two years of aging, and a few harmful washes in the FentonWasher, barely covers my mid-section. But Sam's shirt is basically the same length as mine, why was he staring at me? It could also have something to do with the length of my red shorts, which have also shrunk significantly in the FentonWasher, as well as the tiny growth spurt I had. I'm supposed to, according to Danny, have a couple more in coming years, but, with the way Tucker's staring at me now, I don't think I'm looking forward to it. My hair has also lengthened considerably, coming down to my inner knee cap and gathering in an extremely low pony tail a few inches before its end, where it spikes out voluminously. Sure, the bangs are still spiked up in some places like Danny's, but, with a red head band replacing my red knit-cap occasionally, I look more like Jazz's clone than Danny's. I did say occasionally, right? I didn't trash the red knit-cap because it's my keepsake. Like a toddler's blanket, or a woman's wedding ring, it's a symbol of love to me. If I'm ever lucky enough to be in a tight-knit relationship like Danny and Sam's, then I want to give it to him, so I've been saving it for that someone special. And anyone who knows me, namely the family I'm currently residing with, knows that I don't let most people touch it. Only Danny really, and that was very, very briefly. I guess you could say I "lose my cool" whenever someone unwarrantedly touches it.

Tucker's stare is so creepy now it pulls me out of my thoughts and I notice the warning look Danny gives him. I guess that's why he doesn't look at Sam and the way she dresses, because the only thing worse than staring at a ghost vigilante's cousin, was staring at his girlfriend.

I look over the tight trio and it's apparent I'm not the only one who's changed over the past years. Danny's certainly grown taller, his frame filling up more with muscles acquired over his ghost-fighting career. Aside from that, he hasn't changed much, but his ghost half has differed from the simple hazmat suit he used to prance around in. It's grown more like his evil half's, practically, only his hair hasn't turned to a ghostly flame, and his skin is still tan enough. His human form has actually tanned quite a bit as well, differing from Sam's complexion, which seems to have paled even more. Small alterations have been made to the skirt she normally wears, having new dynamics, such as pleats and volume at the end, and bigger green stripes. Tucker's face didn't seem as round, and his chin was a bit more defined, working well with the stubble of hair above his lip and on his chin. Other than that and the obvious affects of age, they looked relatively the same.

After Danny's glare at Tucker had finally gotten him to take his eyes off of me, he turns to me with a smile,

"Whatcha need, Dani?"

"Mom and Dad need you to clean the lab. Another experimental mishap."

"Great. That makes the seventh time this week!" he huffed, then turned to the duo on the bed.

"Anyone want to help me scrape ectoplasm off the walls of my parent's lab?"

"Oh, look!" Tucker fished his PDA out of the plethora of technological devices in his book bag, "I'm getting a message." He glanced down at the dormant home screen and his eyes widened, "My, this is urgent! Gotta go!" With that, he sped out the door.

"Looks like Tucker could use some help with that!" And Sam was gone to.

He turned to me with a lopsided grin.

"You're not going to ditch me to, are you?"  
"Are you kidding? I owe you my life, the least I can do is help you clean the lab every once in a while."

"Every once in a while?" he asked rhetorically as we made our way to the lab, "Try twice a day. And you've helped for a whole week. Don't get me wrong, it's been nice not having to do it on my own," he sighed, opening the door to the dark stair, "but you don't have to act like you're forever in my debt or something. You should take a page out of Jazz's book, she acts like she doesn't owe anyone."

After that, we sterilize the lab in silence, and before the hour is up, it's looking brand new.

"Well, that wasn't so bad, was it?" I inquired cheerfully with a hopefully-contagious smile.

"Speak for yourself." He simply mutters, stashing a dirty rag into one of the containment drawers.

"Oh, come on, it wasn't that bad."

"Eh. Guess you're right. But tonight's our last night of freedom. Wish I could have used it a little differently." He sighed with a wistful tone.

"I don't think it's too late to call Sam back up." I giggle with an omniscient smile.

"Hey, I get to spend school with Sam, it's not really her I should be worried about. You don't know anyone at that school. And what if your powers start acting up? You haven't exactly been handy with them around the house…"

"What are you talking about?" It was at that moment that my elbow decided to go intangible on me, causing my whole form the fall flat on the ground without the support of a desk to steady me.

"That's what I'm talking about." He says, not in an I-told-you-so tone, but a compassionate one as he offers a hand. I gratefully take it and settle myself on my own two feet.

"Did this happen when you first got your powers?"

"Yeah. You'd be surprised the kind of things I fell through. It was mostly my elbow, though, that gave weigh, but sometimes it would just be my entire self that would go intangible and I'd get stuck with my neck in between the floor of our living room and the ceiling of this place."

"Yeah, but that was when you first got your powers, I've had mine for nearly two years. Why is this still happening to me?"

"I guess after I gave you that injection, it returned you to a normal state. But have you been training with your powers at all? Have you fought anyone besides Vlad and me?"

"Well, no…"

"Then that must be it. Here, I'll help train you so you don't go haywire at school, but first, you want to spend one last night of freedom at the Nasty Burger before we have to get back to business?"

"If you're sure I'm not making you miss some date with Sam…"

"I told you, I can always see her at school."

"Then, come on! What are you waiting for?" And with that, I was racing up those black steps again.

The food at the Nasty Burger wasn't too great, hence the name, but the highly combustible condiments that Danny assured me could ruin an entire future, made all of the greasy and bland food taste okay. After all, you never really went to the Nasty Burger for their phenomenal French fries and notorious Nasty Burgers. You went for the people and the social background. Each table harbored a high school stereotype. The table we were sitting at was reserved for Danny's colorfully cultured group of techno, Goth, and, well, Danny was pretty ordinary in his human form, if you ask me. He didn't necessarily fit one stereotype, but managed to stretch himself over several, leaving the reigning popular stereotypes, which were of course in charge of categorizing all lesser stereotypes, to have no choice but to group him in the broadest category known to simple-minded jocks and their girlfriends alike. Loser.

But Danny's not the only one who likes to intermingle with the other stereotypes, I see. There's a blonde boy with cerulean eyes I can see not too far from where we're sitting who's wearing a baby blue Ralph Lauren polo, a pink sweater wrapped around his neck like a scarf-cape, and khaki capris. He looks like the poster boy for rich country club kid. He's sliding into a booth with a raven-haired boy dressed in a black wife beater and a faded army jacket with dark denim jeans that sport a bike chain. Prep and hoodlum, I'm guessing. An odd combination for friends. Then, while I'm analyzing them, the prep finally catches me staring, and waves. I wave back, almost in a daze, the question the hoodlum's asking him and the question Danny's asking me pulls both of us out of our little stupor.

"What was that?"

"Uh, nothing," I shrug, "Some kid was waving at me." He jerked his neck like he was planning on looking around, but I discouraged that with a harsh whispered instruction opposing the gesture. He looks at me funny for a second, but then just smiles. The next words out of his mouth are cut off by the warning of visible, ice-cold breath that extracts from his lips.

"Guess our night off couldn't last?"

"Not in Amity, it couldn't." he gave a knowing grin and we both headed down the hall to where the restrooms were. He let me pass through to the door with the ideology of a woman on it first while crouching half-way in a facetious bow.

"Ladies first." It's just a quick flash of light, and I'm fully emerged in my ghost self. It's mostly the same costume it's always been, but since my hair has lengthened, so has my ghostly white mane, which is identical to my human form's hair, only that most of the spikes in my bangs and at the very end of my pony tail have become smooth, completely rounded off by the transformation. I wait half a second before flying into the air, knowing that Danny is just a few paces behind me. I see a white polar bear-like figure with vicious eyes. It chases after me and I go intangible faster than he can barrel into me. He crashes into a wall and is rendered unconscious out for the time being. I don't know if he's completely knocked out, but it's always good to be prepared, just in case he's faking it. After a few analytical sweeps of my surroundings, it's clear to see Danny wasn't just a few paces behind me. He was no where in sight. And the polar bear ghost was getting back up, a bellicose gleam in his eye. He charged at me again, but this time, I just couldn't seem to go intangible. There was something holding me back, so I somersaulted out of the way of the deranged animal ghost, realizing that if I stayed there any longer, I would be dead meat. Or, well, dead ectoplasm. No matter what my remains may be, I couldn't let it become relevant in this fight. I don't even know what I was so worried about. I just had to survive until Danny came to help me, but in the meantime…

"Hey! Ugly bear monster! What are you doing in Amity Park? Got kicked out of the North Pole for that _face_." I taunted, an aquiline smile cutting across my face. Until Danny came, this was going to be fun. Sure the taunt might have been a little lame, but, hey, witty banter isn't as easy as it looks. Er, sounds.

Its roar was like a tiny version of the perfected ghost wail as its jaundiced eyes smoldered with animosity and came running for me again.

"Olay!" I exclaimed, firing a blast of energy at the creature. It was still not satisfied with the fight, and came for me again, this time instead of a roar, it was mumbling syllables, and not just syllables, but letter sounds.

"S-s-s-s-s…"

"What?"

"O-l-l-l-l-l…"

Its run became slower, as it made more coherent sounds.

"I-i-i-i-d-d-d-d…"

Its run turned into a walk as it neared me.

"P-p-p-p-p…."

It was finally standing toe-to-toe with me, staring me down as if trying to intimidate me with his height.

"U-u-u-u-u-n-n-n-n…"

Due to the lack of brains I knew he had, it wasn't exactly working. I could outsmart this sycophant any day.

"C-c-c-c-c-c-h-h-h-h-h-h-h…"

He smacked me to the side and I realized if he was as strong as he looked, he wouldn't need brains to win this fight, but there was no way I was going to take it lying down. I put a hand on the concrete and tried to make my way to my feet, but my whole arm just fell through the floor of the parking lot. The polar bear ghost was nearing me once again. I tried an energy blast, but he move out of the way as if it was nothing. What was is it he was saying earlier?

"S…ol…id…p…un…ch…?" I inquired out loud, "Oh! Solid punch!" I turned to the ghoul with a maligning smile, "You want a solid punch, do ya? I'll give you a solid punch!" But unfortunately, my talk couldn't keep up with my abilities, as I floundered to stabilize my fist and he drew nearer still. I cursed Vlad under my breath, but soon realized the man and his faulty manufacturing was the least of my worries as the polar bear ghost gripped my collar and lifted me into the air. I forced all the ectoplasm I could muster into my fist and swung it at him. I closed my eyes in fear of the results, but to my pleasant surprise when I finally did open my eyes, it was to observe him flying half way across the lot. A hand jerked down on my shoulder and I turned to see Danny, smiling down at me.

"Where were you, Danny? That thing almost took off my head!"

He just chuckles and waves off my comment dismissingly.

"Oh, Frostbite wouldn't do anything like that."

"Frostbite?"

"Please to meet you, Danielle." Without warning, the polar bear ghost was behind me, but his malevolent eyes looked a little more amiable in the fluorescent glow of the Nasty Burger's neon sign. Realization swallows me whole and I turn back to Danny, weighing my options between smacking that grin off his face, or just smacking him in general.

"You planned that? Are you kidding me? I could have gotten seriously injured!"

"Not to worry, honored one. I would never hurt one of your kind."

"But you smacked me across the parking lot!" I swung around to face the other hafta, who was beaming at me, "And you! What are you smiling at? You arranged this whole thing, didn't you?" I gesticulated a fist in his direction and he put up a neutral hand, utilized as a prelude to his explanation.

"What helped me stabilize my powers when I was your age was fighting some worthy adversaries. And I believe Frostbite to be more than worthy."

"Thank you, honored one. I'm glad I could be of some assistance to you once again. Until next time, I believe this is farewell."

"Bye, Frostbite! I'll visit again real soon!" Danny waved the ghost off as he disappeared into the sky.

"You could have told me!"

"Ahh, but then you wouldn't have taken it as seriously. See, Dani. I think of everything." He claimed confidently, stagnantly floating above me with his hands tucked behind his head.

"Well, I guess there really is no harm done…" I sigh, foolishly letting it go.

"And there's also some good done…"

"Guess you're right about that, too."

"Don't sound too happy about it."

"I'm not."

"You'll learn to cope with me being right all the time." He flashed a toothy grin.

"Well, I certainly can't stay mad at you for long. And you kind of _are _my ride home…"

"I do have that fortune in the cards." He stretches his arms and yawns, "Well, I'm beat. Come on, let's go."

* * *

The moonlight outside was dreadfully pale, placidly wavering shafts of color over the amethyst carpet of the mayor's home office through the window. A cat scampered away from its insipid grasp, into the hands of an even more dastardly threat. Vlad Masters stroked the feline absentmindedly, muttering some half-conscious question of where it had been hiding, while assiduously watching the screen in front of him, eyes knocking from side to side voraciously, savoring each delicious detail in front of him.

"So…it would appear young Danielle is back…and Daniel is training her..."

Danny's car's retreating form sported one last look of the two hybrids through the Nasty Burger security cameras, which, being the owner of the "fine" establishment, Vlad had the rights to.

"What does that make now, Jack? Two ghosts living under your roof and you're _still _none the wiser?" He arched his spine backwards and thew his head up as his throat racked with dark rolls of laughter. The porcelain-colored cat jumped out of its master's arms, alarmed by the sudden change of the composed man's demeanor.

_AN:_

_Alright, so most of this chapter was first person, but that part at the end was third. Any winners so far? Let me know with a review. And, also, feel free to suggest ideas for chapters. I have an overlay of some of the big arcs, but there are some fun little fillers I need to add to introduce characters and other such formalities. So, please, review! Tell me what you liked, what you didn't like, what you hated, what you loved, what you would have loved, and what you would have hated! I'll take anything as long as it's feedback! And my update schedule (since I have a total of fifteen different stories I'm currently working on) is based on reviews and favorites. So, if you'd like to see more, you know what to do!_

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	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Sorry. Clockwork says not yet. Emphasis on the _yet_.

_Hey, punks! Number of reviews are pretty good, so I'm updating, and a few chapters (I'd like to call them episodes…. .) are going to be filler, like I said, to get to know the characters, then starts the real plot. Which I am VERY excited about! Why else would I sacrifice a chapter of The Rift (which has about 170 reviews) to write more for this?_

When Danny told me how horrible school was, I took it as a hyperbole. He over exaggerated everything in the most sappy, melodramatic voice I thought could never even be possible for a post-pubescent male. I just quirked an eyebrow, downplayed some of his "life or death" high school moments, and maintained a positive attitude.

But that only lasted so long. And, oh, I couldn't even begin to describe the shock when I found out his words were pure, devastating _fact_. The optimism soon contorted to pessimism as the day trolled on. The kid Danny was telling me about, Dash? Apparently he didn't get enough out of terrorizing two Fentons, Jazz from tutoring, Danny from physical harassment, so he had to go after all three. And of course I couldn't work myself in to any social group. I, like Danny, stretched across several stereotypes, making it hard to be contained or accepted into any one group. So when lunch reared its ugly head, I decided to sit with the cross-contaminated stereotype table. Also known as, the Hoodlum and the Prep.

My tray ungracefully slid in next to the Hoodlum, meat sloshing around the sectioned off dish, threatening to overflow and perturb the cookie in its private quarters.

"Hey. I'm Danille." I muttered, ducking my head, half expecting the hoodlum to flash a knife at me or the prep to tell me to talk to the hand.

"Hey." Was the unexpectedly warm greeting from the preppy blonde.

"Hi." The raven-haired boy nodded in acknowledgement, and, albeit his greeting wasn't cheery as the other boy's, the aloofness in his appearance had lightened up a little.

"New girl, hmm? You didn't fit in with anyone else on your first day, so you thought you'd come to the table with the least amount of people and hope that they'd fall over themselves trying to get another member?" he surmised, looking me up and down. Finally his eyes stopped traveling and his face hardened, "You're sadly mistaken."

Upon seeing my palpable unease and disgruntled expression, the blonde stepped in.

"Oh, lay off, Gray. She's fine where she is. And we really could use one more person." He gave a smirk very similar to Gray's default expression, "Besides, I'm tired of looking at your ugly face."

"Don't start with me, Peter."

"Whatever."

"Yeah, yeah, _whatever_, Princey."

"I told you never to call me that."

"Sorry, Princey, must've slipped."

As I was told later, they fought on a weekly basis. Their fights were normally just a callous tease that spread like wild fire, causing big, dragged out debates that illuminated their differences. But they were more like brothers than anything else. And brothers often times did have their differences. Despite their bickering, they were close. Believe it or not.

"Not in front of the new girl!"

"She's going to find out about it sooner or later, Princey," he gave a raucous glare in my direction "that is, _if_ she lasts."

"What are you talking about?"

Before Peter could protest, he began,

"Princey over here used to be Mr. Popular. But then his parents were kicked out of power, and the popular crowd dropped him just like that," he snapped to emphasis his point, "After being deposed, we started to hang out, and a couple months later, his parents were put back into power again. The Pops were all over him, drawn like flies to honey. Especially those gold-digging bimbos. But Princey had learned his lesson and stayed here with me. After a few weeks, the message finally got through those thick skulls of theirs, and they slowly lost interest. Moral of the story: never get distracted by my story telling, because I will 99.99% of the time be stealing something off your tray." He held up the cookie from my platter in triumph. I waved it off dismissively, indicating he could have it. With a wolfish grin, he devoured it.

"But, wait, how was his parents kicked in and out of power? Were they, like, fired and then hired?"

Peter crossed his arms morosely as we talked about him as if he wasn't even there. He was a little surprised when Gray turned to him, including him in the conversation now, and stared at him smugly.

"Yeah, something like that, you see, his parents…"

"Gray…" Peter stared at him with patience, his voice curving like a warning.

"What I meant to say before I was so rudely interrupted…"

"She doesn't need to know…"

"She's going to find out sooner or later…"

"I'd rather it be later rather than sooner." He explained matter-of-factly.

"What is it?" I inquired.

Despite, or rather, _in_ spite, of Peter's protests, Gray explained,

"See, Princey here? He's an actual prince. Right now, you're looking at Prince Peter the IV."

As my eyes sparked with recognition, Peter's sparked with disappointment,

"Oh! You're the prince of Colepurn! I've heard about you."

"Of course you have." His tone was dead as he stared daggers into Gray's emerald eyes. Gray simply folded his arms with a satisfied smirk.

"Well, I don't even really know where Colepurn is. I'm not going to make a big deal out of it if you don't want me to." He smiled at me warmly, perceptibly a thanks. But he then turned to Gray and all the warmth was gone from his gaze.

"What if I tell Danille here what your background story is?" Gray's eyes bulged for a spilt second before he regained composure.

"Go ahead." He sighed indifferently, but Peter could tell he was a lot less apathetic about his past than he let on.

"I don't think you want that."

"Hmm? And what would make you think that?" he tilted his head to the side with a cocky grin. They stared at each other with varying expressions and I felt as if I was being excommunicated out of some clandestine conversation. Their eyes trailed to me a few times, but other than that, it was like I wasn't even there. A few minutes past until one of them actually spoke.

"I think we've reached an understanding." Peter smiled graciously, then uncharacteristically blurted out, "Gray's real name is Gabriel."

I tried to suppress my laughter. And, unlike Danny, I managed to with a polite smile before asking,

"Gray's not your last name, is it?"

"No."

"Good. Because, you know, Gabriel Gray…" here I let an unwarranted chuckle loose.

"Yeah, yeah I get it. I go by Gray. It's not my name in any law, but it's better than being nicknamed Gabe." He made a tart face at the word.

"Understandable." I nodded.

"So what about you?" he inquired, "What's the mystery behind Danille Fenton?"

"Well, I — wait. I never told you my last name."

He shrugged, "I just kind of figured you and Danny looked alike. You his sister?"  
"Cousin." I replied, "But I might as well be. My parents died in a car accident, and I've been living with the Fenton's ever since."

"No blood siblings, I take it? Where did you live before here?" Gray questioned.

"Here, there, hither, thither, you know how it is."

"I mean, where were you living right before your parents died in a car accident?"

"…Wisconsin."

"Let me guess, they were truck drivers or something? That explains why you moved around so much and the car accident." the raven-haired boy guessed.

"You took the words right out my mouth." I sighed with relief on the inside, "Don't think I can't see that intuitive aptitude manifesting itself. Maybe you really are Gabriel Gray." He turned to Peter.

"I really never should have let you open your big mouth."

"I could say the same thing about you." Peter smirked. But it was shortly lived. His eyes floated away from our table and towards the lunch line, where late students were getting the absolutely last minute meal. I traced his gaze to a red headed girl, whose bobby-pinned bangs were fixed at stylish angles and the ends of her straight hair twisted into one giant swirl. She wore a frilly pink skirt over a floral-patterned tank top and pink flats with fabric flowers sewn on to the toe. She sat down over at the popular table and began chatting voraciously with other nicely dressed girls. He watched her laugh intently and I looked inquisitively towards Gray.

"That's Cynthia, his crush. She was the new girl last year at the end of the year. She wasn't here when Peter denounced the populars, so to him, she doesn't count. You know, if he would stop staring at her with that stupid grin on his face, and go and talk to her, she would be all his. The populars are still trying to get a piece of him, so she'd fall for the simplest romantic get up." He caught my eyes trailing over to Peter and replied,

"Oh, don't worry. He can't hear us when he's like that. We could talk about anything we please and he'd be none the wiser." He smiled reflectively, "He doesn't use his head much, but he's a cool guy." It was at that moment that a gasp and a strip of azure decided to escape my lips.

"You cold?"

"No. No, I'm fine. But now that you mention it…" Man, how did Danny get out of situations like these? "I think I have to use the bathroom." I scurried away from the table and out of view of anyone. Twin incandescent rings circumnavigate my height and the transformation was complete. I survey my surroundings and look for any signs of aberrant activity, but the only thing I can see is Danny, in ghost form, having his own little go at reconnaissance.

"Hey, Danny!" I call, now floating above his shoulder.

"Hey yourself." He smiles up at me, but his face quickly becomes serious.

"You sensed the ghost, too?"

He nods.

"Normally, it just kind of jumps into the cafeteria, which is a little more than convenient, but — I don't know, maybe we're just a little late?"

A high-pitched frequency cuts me off before I can reply. We both clutch our heads as the cacophony vehemently throws us to the floor. Suddenly, my ears have a heart beat of their own, speedily crashing in on itself while the thumping bangs against my ear drums, as if they were actual drums. No, scratch that, as if they were pots and pans that some three-year-old was thrashing against with kitchen utensils. I could feel the life-sustaining ectoplasm ooze out of the point of injury, and knew it must be more serious than I thought, for if I was in human from, that would've been blood. Building up the strength to open my eyes, I saw that everyone eating and talking in the cafeteria was not affected by the malevolent noise.

"Danny! It only affects ghosts!" But all the warning succeeds at is jumbling my senses further. With a groan, I try to convert back to my human form, but something in the frequency is prohibiting that, and the two circles don't make it past my abdomen. It's all I can do not to shriek with pain as I struggle into a sitting position and despite my efforts to keep myself together, I can see the world around me getting further and further as my grip on reality loosens. There's one last hazy image that filters into my torpid mind before the world fades to back. Flashing lights and a crooked smile.

* * *

"Wake up, Dani." My shoulder received a few amiable shoves before I found myself conscious, next to Danny in a dark place. Onyx shadows covered everything and the surplus oozed from the walls, threatened to overflow. The only reason I could see Danny was because of the iridescent ectoplasm conjured in his hand.

"Where are we?"

"Doesn't matter. We're not going to be here long. Come on." He grabs my hand and begins flying. As we lift off, and some of the pale green light dusts across the floor, I can see we're inside a tight stairwell structure, racing past an endless row of stairs. There's a hissing sound that rises from the bottom of the stair well and flickers of crimson light run across my field of vision.

"Danny, there's something down there!"

"What?"  
All it takes is a moment's hesitation, and the electrifying, red light shoots him right out of the air, as if he had flown to close to the sun and his wax wings were melting. I hold onto his hand and manage to drag him up a couple more steps before he regains his momentum and start's flying again. But this time, it's in the opposite direction.

"What are you doing?" I whisper-shout at him before he can get more than a few feet away from me. He stops and whips his head back around to face me.

"Taking the fight to it."

"What if it just knocks us out again? What about that terrible noise?"

"It'll be alright. Come on, Dani, you're not afraid of the dark, are you?" And with that he turned invisible. But it's not necessarily hard to find him when he does that, you just have to follow the trail of witty banter and there he'll be. Except, this time, he was staying especially quiet. I followed suit, turning invisible and snooping down the stairs for any sign of the light. I heard a grunt and the sound of hissing behind me. Turning around, I found a ghost woman with swirling onyx hair, a gold band with green jewels encasing her forehead, vibrant green-yellow eyes, and a torn gold dress lowering herself to the floor, as did Danny, as if mocking her motions. Danny's eyes stayed trained on hers as the interaction happened. In a moment, the hissing returned and a snake seemingly materialized out of thin air; its first action was to bite him. It succeeded in causing two pink fang-marks on his shoulder and he had an involuntary muscle spasm, which landed him on the floor, curling in towards the dark mortar-and-cinderblock wall.

"W-w-who are you?" I stuttered, trying to mask my initial panic. It wasn't working.

"Me? I'm glad you asked, Sweetie. My name's Evangeline." Her eyes flashed a brighter emerald-gold, "The Reptile Queen."

"What's going on?"

"Oh, what indeed." She smiled cruelly. She looked me up and down, and her smile became a little more amiable. Wicked, but still amiable.

"What are you, girl? Ten? Nine? They never told me you were so young."

"I'm fourteen, and what do you mean 'they?'" I glared at her. "And what did you do to Danny?"  
"Nothing, nothing, that was just a sedative. Sure, it doesn't really make you sleep, but by tomorrow, this whole day will be a blur for him." Her flippant veneer vanished for a moment, "But it's important that this day is crystal clear for you."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, they did say a message." She flashed another grin as her eyes brightened even more. "And since you keep asking questions and refuse to listen to teacher…I guess I'll teach you a lesson the corporal way." The ground shook, the walls vibrating with anticipation, as a large lizard, around the size of a small bear, burst through the floor, coming up under Evangeline in just the right way, so that the queen would be riding the beast. A snake-skinned whip appeared in her hand and she made a figure eight with the spiked tip, signifying that she was done talking. That's okay with me. I was done with talking anyways. I charged toward her with an ectoblast, but the lizard was too voluminous and would've ran me over with the thoroughness of a steamroller if I hadn't gone intangible just in the nick of time. Okay. So the head-on tactic wasn't going to work on this thing. I needed to try a more elusive strategy like…

…like a snake!

With the consistency of water, I zipped past all of the enlarged reptile's slashes, flying around like a pin ball whizzing through obstacles. But I was going to fast, and I knew I had to slow down or else I'd run straight into the Reptile Queen, but still, the acceleration continued. I couldn't stop myself from running into her. We both went flying, and the gold band on her forehead went flying off, clattering down the stairs haplessly.

"Oh, no…" she murmured, "…oh, no…" Both her and the lizard began to gravitate towards where it had fallen. Suddenly, the pull got stronger and it was as if the two ghouls were being sucked into some sort of invisible vortex. The band, I realized, and all of the jewels! There was something special about them, because when I picked it up, it was clear that there was a ghost hiding in each jewel. Evangeline banged against the emerald, yelling to be let free, but the shouts were muted by her small vocal chords.

"And that's what I call, being cut down to size." I laughed slowly and half-heartedly at my banter that wasn't exactly necessary at the moment. Oh, well. With Danny as my teacher, I was sure to get better at it.

Speaking of Danny…

"Danny!" I shrieked, rushing over to his side, the gold bangle in hand. He was still unconscious, but at least the spasms had stopped. I did my best to lift him, despite his heavier weight, and carried him back home.

* * *

A pale hand reached down to feel the rubble of the broken parts of the stair case. Shock illuminated his features as he turned to his companion, worried etched in his eyes and evident in his tone, "She's gone." The worry soon smoldered into animosity, "What have they done to her? The two of them are so dead!"

"Please." His partner smiled an ethereal smile, "They were already dead." She shrugged, "Well, at least I'm hoping our boss will take care of that."

"But what about Evangeline?"

"Oh, don't worry, we'll find her. We always do."

"And if we find her…"

"Then we'll find those two insufferable imposters and put an end to their half-life."

_AN:_

_Look at that sexy button right below this. Just look at it. _


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